Pope Francis will visit Mexico in 2016

Pope Francis waves to the crowd as he arrives to celebrate the final Mass for the World Meeting of Families along Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia Sept. 27.

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican bishops' conference and the Vatican
have confirmed Pope Francis will visit Mexico in 2016,
marking his first trip to this heavily Catholic country in
throes of unrest over unresolved issues such as violence,
crime and corruption.

Auxiliary Bishop Eugenio Lira Rugarcia of Puebla, conference
secretary-general, told Catholic News Service that the pope
would travel to Mexico next year, though dates and details
were still to be determined. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi,
Vatican spokesman, provided similar information to the
Televisa network, adding the trip would likely take place
during the first half of 2016 and include a stop in the
capital, Mexico City.

Pope Francis has previously mused about visiting Mexico, home
to the world's second-largest Catholic population. After
visiting the Philippines last year, the pope said he wanted
to walk from Mexico into the United States "as a sign of
brotherhood and of help to the immigrants," along with
visiting the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the world's
most-visited Marian shrine.

He said in September that he had planned to enter the United
States at a border crossing, going from Ciudad Juarez to El
Paso, Texas, but opted to instead visit Cuba after the
communist country and the United States ended their
estrangement, with Vatican assistance.

Migration - in the form of Central Americans traveling
through Mexico and and falling victim to criminals and
corrupt public officials - is one of many potential issues on
the agenda for Pope Francis in Mexico.

A visit in early 2016 would come as the country continues
confronting vices like corruption, which has implicated the
president, and insecurity in states such as Michoacan and
Guerrero, the latter being where 43 students were kidnapped
and presumably killed by police acting in cahoots with
criminals in September 2014.

President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose agenda has focused more
on economic reforms than social and security problems, has
traveled twice to the Vatican since Pope Francis' election.
In June 2014, his visit followed the bishops' conference
issuing an unusually terse statement on his economic agenda.

Politicians from Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary
Party - which was founded by the anti-clerical victors of the
Mexican Revolution - previously avoided public encounters
with prelates, but have sought well-publicized papal
audiences in recent years, reflecting the thaw in
church-state relations over the past 25 years.

Pope Benedict XVI made the last papal trip to Mexico in March
2012, visiting Guanajuato state. His visit drew an estimated
600,000 people for the final Mass - doubling expectations -
though his message stayed away from uncomfortable issues such
as security.

According to census data, Mexico remains one of Latin
America's most Catholic countries, with 83 percent of the
population professing the faith.